OMB says it cannot locate any public comments on its reorg

Although the Office of Management and Budget asked for public input on its restructuring efforts, it now says it cannot find any such comments and one organization filed a lawsuit in response.

After President Trump signed an executive order in March of last year for the OMB to reorganize the agency by eliminating unnecessary programs, Director Mick Mulvaney posted a video soliciting ideas and input from the public—also a part of the order.

But, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility—a nonprofit group of government workers that aim to further environmental laws and values—after the public comment period ended, the OMB website boasted that it had received more than 100,000 comments, but the statement has since been deleted and the agency now claims in a lawsuit, filed by PEER, that it has no record of receiving any comments.

“How could they not locate 100,000 comments?” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, said in a statement, adding, “The White House call for public involvement in reforming government seems to have been merely a cynical stunt.”

Ruch added, “We will likely never know if the public registered strong preferences supporting or exactly opposite what the Trump team has done.

View the PEER statement, as well as OMB’s response to the lawsuit here.

Reader comments

Thu, May 10, 2018
New Mexico

Agency record for managing their IT infrastructure is dismal. OPM vendor requirements for IT are not practical and far too expensive. Time to weed out unqualified OPM staff. Down size the agency and validate those remaining have the skill sets to met organization's goals.

Wed, May 9, 2018

OMB and Bleach-bit. Hasn't been the first time.

Wed, May 9, 2018

Come on Folks
OMB response is so typical in government
They are not interested in any sort of down sizing or change things the way they are currently
Remember some folks benefits from all these despicable management tactics and behavior. I'm in favor of control federal employee reducement in the federal government

Mon, May 7, 2018

I can tell you for a fact that there were comments as I submitted 4 of them myself. And when I looked at the page there were 100s of them

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